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Biodiversity Mainstreaming

Aichi Biodiversity Target Two - Biodiversity Mainstreaming – focuses on the need to integrate the values and benefits of biodiversity into societal decision-making. It states: By 2020, at the latest, biodiversity values have been integrated into national and local development and poverty reduction strategies and planning processes and are being incorporated into national accounting, as appropriate, and reporting systems.

Although biodiversity and ecosystem services provide enormous societal values, these values and benefits are not widely reflected or accounted for in societal decision making, including in productive sectors, such as agriculture and energy, and in development sectors, such as land-use planning and poverty reduction. As a result, these and other sectors often have major negative impacts on biodiversity, underpinning the very foundation that sustains them. Furthermore, trends in biodiversity loss are often invisible in national accounts. To achieve Aichi Biodiversity Target Two, countries need to assess the values of biodiversity to a variety of sectors, and integrate biodiversity values fully into their national planning processes. Countries should consider developing natural capital accounting systems, and those that recognize social and cultural values.

Indicators of biodiversity mainstreaming may include status and trends in: